What Kind of World We Want?

"No doubt we humans will survive anything, even if polar bears and Arctic cod do not.  Perhaps we could support nine hundred billion if we choose a world with no large animals, pod apartments, genetically engineered to algae to eat, and desalinized toilet water to drink.  Or perhaps nine hundred million if we choose a wilder planet, generously restocked with the creatures of our design.  To be, the more important question is not of capacity but of desire: What kind of world do we want?"

Excerpt from the book World of  2050 via MR

I think, not many people have the patience nor willingness for that kind of long term view. So the debates tend to be driven by parochialism or ad hominem hence we are left with excesses of doomsayers and Panglossians.